Two guided walks will be the next events on the ever-more crowded calendar of the Salter Centenary celebrations being held in Bermondsey throughout the year.
Taking place on successive Sundays, the walks will provide unique insights into the achievements of Ada and Alfred Salter, the remarkable ILPers who helped to transform this corner of south east London 100 years ago with their radical vision and commitment to grass-roots politics and environmental change.
‘London’s best-known tree expert’ Paul Wood leads a walk on Sunday 22 May to celebrate the legacy of Ada’s groundbreaking tree-planting programme in the area, while a week later on 29 May Sue McCarthy of Capital Walks will guide a group of urban trampers through the borough, visiting sites connected to the Salters and explaining how they turned an area of early 20th century slums into a district famous for its health service, trees, flowers and garden city cottages.
The first in an ongoing series of guided outings, the walks are only the most immediate events on the packed Salter Centenary Project programme which is expanding all the time.
Among the other initiatives to join the celebrations in recent weeks is sculptor Diane Gorvin’s Instagram project revealing how she created the iconic Salter statutes on the bankside of the River Thames; a plan to refurbish a children’s playground, originally designed by Ada and first opened in 1921; and a huge mural celebrating Bermondsey life and social history, created by Paul Butler, that centres on an image of Ada planting flower pots.
Other events to look out for include an Ada Salter birthday concert on 16 July, a cricket match between teams from Southwark and Raunds (Ada’s Northamptonshire birthplace) on 6 August, a bike ride to Fairby Grange on 20 August, and a Town Partnership Day on 10 September, accompanied by a Salter exhibition in the art gallery at Southwark Park.
For more details on all these and more go to the Salter Centenary website.
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